WHAT’S SO FUNNY?

It seems to me everything is funny, even death can be.

There are a lot of people in this world who are too somber, too serious and too focused on appearance and making money because of it. I have always felt that if I needed to focus so hard of what people think of me, or the need to make lots of money, I would be missing something in life! There is a time and place for that, under heaven.

The holidays are here and people tend to bend over backwards being nice to one another, after all “it’s the holidays!” Yes, go back to being a bastard on January 2^nd of the New Year, meanwhile chill out. That is too bad, that means to me you are intolerant and perhaps a little untrustworthy.

I was once told that people want me at a funeral because I can get them to smile, livening things up! I used to worry about going to a funeral and facing the bereaved, wondering to myself what do I say? It is awkward that first moment and if it is a friend and not family, it becomes ever the more awkward. Gentle words and a small chuckle can help relieve the moment for the bereaved and me.

I remind myself now that when I go in to a funeral parlor: that I need to put the fun back in funeral! Sounds silly and maybe disrespectful, but I think about the deceased and wonder how much he or she would want me to be in a state of apprehension over his or her demise.  Sadness is expected, but I try never to wear it on my sleeve, because that makes people uncomfortable because of me.

Oh, there are tragedies of course, and you won’t catch me smiling because I don’t feel like it, like when a child or a young parent passes. But even those occasions one must find relief outside of the venue.

When I go, I intend to lie down, and once I do, I don’t want anyone bothering to get me up. As you know, humor can be borne out of tragedy, a kind of escape hatch from becoming totally hysterical from loss. When Dad died, that was the first time I cried in public, because Dad and I did a lot together, I had lost an old friend. But once that moment passed in the funeral parlor, I started to think about him not as gone, but what he left me. He had a great sense of humor, and I think Mom too has one. But Dad and I did so much and he taught me so much both directly and indirectly. I thought about the time he fell into the bay one night while crabbing, or the time I played some dirty tricks on him, and all the times he did likewise to me. When these things came to mind, I smiled and thought: why not?

On the social network called Facebook, I have extended my sense of humor at the price of my myself, poking fun at me, religion, politics and sports and even all the wonderful people who are on the network, I love to get them to like something I did or said, and I guess I kind of created my own schtick.

I guess what it all boils down to is that all my family, friends and acquaintances should all die laughing, because the last thing we do on Earth is die.